by Terry Brock

Note: This is part of a presentation which Terry presented recently to the National Speakers Association at a Sales Lab in Phoenix, Arizona. Even though it is directed towards speakers, many businesses can find the information contined here useful. For more information, contact Terry at the address given at the end of this article.

The Internet is packed full of useful information about your clients. It is chock full of useful information. This presentation is designed to help you discover useful information and data that can help in your customization of certain topics.

Here, I will list several sources for searching information about various items, including companies. This is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather it is designed to help jog your thinking and start you moving in the right direction. Often we find that when you start searching in one direction that you can uncover reams of data that are related and useful in another area. The following questions and feedback can help to get you started. It is up to you to follow up.

Client’s Domain

As simple as this sounds, try doing a search on the client’s name as a domain. For instance, let’s say you are presenting to Marriott Corporation (yeah, the one with all the nifty hotels!). Your first search could be to simply type marriott.com in your browser’s search area (no www needed in latest versions in most cases).

Remember to use every possible variation. Your client might be listed as the company name, their largest product or an acronym. Think of all possible ways it could be referenced and then plug those into the browser.

Search Engine Magic

The search engines are famous within the Internet. They provide the ability to search rapidly for names. Here are some quick tips:

Leading Search Engines:

• Hotbot.com
• Search.com
• Yahoo.com
• Nlsearch.com
• Planetsearch.com
• Lycos.com
• Altavista.digital.com
• Infoseek.com
• Webcrawler.com
• Excite.com

Search Engine Techniques

• Use quotes (",") to get the exact phrase you are looking for.
• Use + and -. For instance if searching for Gates in Alta-vista you can type "gates" +mcfadden - bill to get Gates McFadden, the actress who played Dr. Beverly Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation rather than the computer guy in Redmond, Washington.
• AND, OR, NOT are good indicators to locate something.

Searching for People & Companies on the Net

You can locate certain people and specific companies with specific search engines as well. Some of the best on the Internet include:

• Whowhere.com
• Four11.com
• Dejanews.com
• Switchboard.com
• Bigfoot.com
• Mapquest.com (for maps and directions)

Sites You Need to Know

Often, I have found useful information while surfing and looking in a general area. The information I find helps me to zero in on what is going on in that industry.

Don’t forget about search within other industries on related topics. You can often generate valuable ideas from other industries simply by looking up how key words are used in different places. Explore and experiment. You’ll find that there is a wealth of information that can be quite useful out there.

On the other side of this work paper you’ll find a list of several web sites that can provide a lot of good, useful information. They can lead to many others. Use this as a reference and build from there.

Other Tips & Tricks

As you’re searching don’t forget other very useful techniques to look for people, places and things on the Net. Some of these include:

• Competitors. Search for information on your client’s competitors in the same way you searched for them.
• Industry. See what is happening in their industry that can be of interest and value.
• News Groups. These handy bulletin boards cover a wide range of talk and ideas. Beware: It is unfiltered and uncensored. Some items might offend the weak at heart but much good can be found there also.
• News Sources. Check out papers around the country to see what is happening in a specific location.
• News & Information. Check out the major magazines and newspapers on-line for information.
• Push Technology. Get the latest information customized to what you need with this technique.
• Primary Research. I owe George Walther a great big THANK YOU for this one! He suggested long ago at NSA to contact about six people in the audience and talk with them before the program. I’ve found this to be a good number to use and an excellent technique. Call them up and ask them about what is going on in their industry. Ask them what their most pressing problems are. Ask what they are doing right and is working for them. As you talk with their people about their problems and how they are solving those problems, you’ll collect extremely valuable information that can be useful.